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PBS video interview with the filmmaker

In this PBS video interview, Lixin Fan discusses the inspiration behind his film LAST TRAIN HOME. He describes the family that is at the center of the film, and the challenges he faced while filming them.

Filmmaker Magazine Interview with Director Lixin Fan

“After all, we all live in this global village, and our lives are connected. Stuff is so cheap here in the States, way cheaper than what you’d need to spend in China for the same product. Why is that? Someone has to be paying the price. Not just working long hours in poor conditions but being separated from their families for an entire year.”

A Family Caught in the Wheels of China’s Industrial Locomotive

“The crush of faces, possessions and umbrellas looks almost like an abstract composition, until you are in the middle of it, at which point it becomes chaotic and overwhelming. In what looks almost like a random encounter, Mr. Fan zeroes in on two individuals, a married couple whose travails will provide a painful, local illumination of a huge and complicated social phenomenon.”

Can China’s New Urbanization Plan Work?

“Bringing people to the cities will not be enough. Rural rights also need reform.

“It is odd to witness the Chinese government pinning its hopes for growth on increased urbanization. For decades, the distinctive feature of China’s urbanization model has been its bias against settling rural-to-urban migrants in the cities, a bias created via the hukou system.”